{"id":104844,"date":"2026-09-22T15:44:06","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T15:44:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/drag-racing\/uncategorized\/jordan-vandergriff-cornwell-tools-team-create-michigan-miracle-with-inaugural-nhra-great-lakes-nationals-funny-car-win\/"},"modified":"2026-09-22T15:44:06","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T15:44:06","slug":"jordan-vandergriff-cornwell-tools-team-create-michigan-miracle-with-inaugural-nhra-great-lakes-nationals-funny-car-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/drag-racing\/uncategorized\/jordan-vandergriff-cornwell-tools-team-create-michigan-miracle-with-inaugural-nhra-great-lakes-nationals-funny-car-win\/","title":{"rendered":"Jordan Vandergriff, Cornwell Tools Team Create Michigan Miracle With Inaugural NHRA Great Lakes Nationals Funny Car Win"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jordan Vandergriff and John Force Racing\u2019s Cornwell Tools Chevrolet SS Funny Car team caught a big break in the first round of the rain-delayed inaugural NHRA Great Lakes Nationals but then proceeded to drop the hammer on the rest of their opponents en route to the team\u2019s third win of the 2026 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season that kicked off the six-race Countdown to the Championship.<\/p>\n

Jack Beckman and the PEAK Chevrolet SS Funny Car team had three strong runs, including his career fastest speed and this season\u2019s quickest Funny Car run, as well as the identical time (to the thousandth of a second) and speed in their semifinal loss to Matt Hagan. The day for Alexis DeJoria\u2019s Bandero Caf\u00e9 Chevrolet Funny Car team and Josh Hart\u2019s Speedmaster Top Fuel team came to an end in Round 2.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hagan had lane choice in the final round against Vandergriff and grabbed the holeshot by two hundredths of a second (.015 to .037) but struck the tires immediately after, while the Cornwell Tools Chevy streaked to victory with the team\u2019s quickest run of the day, 3.858 seconds at 329.43 mph.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt almost doesn\u2019t even feel real,\u201d said Vandergriff. \u201cWe struggled so much, but my guys looked at everything and we finally dissected the singular problem. Once we found that, we went out there (and went 3.871). It\u2019s just an unbelievable weekend and a credit to my team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vandegriff\u2019s third victory of his rookie Funny Car season (South Georgia, Sonoma, Martin) was the first time in 23 years that a No. 16 qualifier went on to win the event.<\/p>\n

The big break of the day came in the opening round when Vandergriff lined up against No. 1 qualifier Austin Prock. The Cornwell Tools Chevy smoked the tires off the line but Prock red-lighted, giving the automatic win to Vandergriff. In Round 2, Vandergriff outran Daniel Wilkerson by four-hundredths of a second (3.871 seconds to 3.911 seconds) and the semifinal race against J.R. Todd was even closer (3.896 seconds to 3.899 seconds).<\/p>\n

\u201cWe capitalized on some good luck in that first round and I\u2019m just very fortunate to be part of this team and for this opportunity. We came out of round one, diagnosed the problem and fixed it. Today\u2019s win is a total credit to my entire team. Funny Car is a battle and I recognize how hard these next five races are going to be. It wasn\u2019t easy today and it\u2019s not going to get any easier. It\u2019s a gauntlet out there, but thankfully today was our day.\u201d<\/p>\n

The victory makes Vandergriff the ninth John Force Racing driver to win a Countdown to the Championship race and, in doing so, earned the organization\u2019s 45th Countdown event. He joins John Force (7 Countdown wins), Robert Hight (16), Brittany Force (7), Austin Prock (7), Mike Neff (2), Courtney Force (2), Jack Beckman (2) and Ashley Force Hood (1).\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Beckman ran the quickest Funny Car run of the 2026 season (3.832 seconds) and the fastest run of his career (337.08 mph) to take the Round 1 win against Jeff Diehl. In Round 2, the PEAK Chevrolet SS Funny Car continued to impress, running 3.841 seconds at 334.08 mph as Ron Capps spun the tires at the hit. In the semifinal against Hagan, both cars ran 3.864 seconds at 333.09 mph, with Hagan\u2019s .029-second reaction time earning the victory over Beckman\u2019s .041 reaction time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe set low ET of the year in the first round, that\u2019s how good the PEAK SQUAD is right now,\u201d said Beckman. \u201cAnd it\u2019s not just that it\u2019s fast, it\u2019s consistent. It\u2019s unbelievable. We\u2019re a little disappointed because we thought we could run another hundredth or two (of a second) quicker in the semifinals. The silver lining is our teammate (Vandergriff) went out there and got the win. So, we\u2019ll leave the race third in points and we\u2019re going to be right back in the thick of things in four days at Rockingham. I don\u2019t care if it\u2019s hot or cold. Our PEAK Chevy can run great in any conditions. I just can\u2019t wait to get strapped back in for Q1 at Rockingham.\u201d<\/p>\n

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DeJoria lined up the Bandero Caf\u00e9 Chevrolet SS against Hunter Green in Round 1, taking the win with a run of 3.884 seconds at 335.07 mph while Green\u2019s car suffered an engine explosion that fortunately took place behind DeJoria. In the second round against Matt Hagan, the Bandero Caf\u00e9 Chevy shook the tires one hundred feet or so into the run, forcing DeJoria to back out of the throttle and handing Hagan the win.<\/p>\n

\u201cit was a long weekend with Sunday turning into the Monday here in Michigan,\u201d said DeJoria. \u201cThe Bandero Caf\u00e9 Chevy ran well in qualifying and the first round of eliminations. In the second round, unfortunately, we overpowered the track against Matt Hagan and that was the end of our day. This is the first of three consecutive weekends of racing. We\u2019re on to another new facility in Rockingham, North Carolina, in just a few short days, so we don\u2019t have to wait long for another shot at it. We\u2019re seventh in the standings after the first race in the Countdown to the Championship. Getting a round win and a bonus point this weekend is good but we\u2019re focused on stepping up our game for these next races.\u201d<\/p>\n

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In Round 1, the Speedmaster Top Fuel Dragster smoked the tires early in the run but his competition, Shawn Reed, cut a red light which automatically disqualified his run and sent Hart to the second round. In Round 2 against Spencer Massey, the Speedmaster dragster shook the tires soon into the run, forcing Hart to get out of the throttle while Massey took the win.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Speedmaster team was focused on capitalizing on the great Q4 run we made Saturday afternoon but the racing gods apparently thought otherwise,\u201d said Hart. \u201cIt\u2019s frustrating because we all know what this team is capable, and we have the trophy from Gainesville to prove it. So, we\u2019ll take a deep breath, reload, and head to Rockingham focused on that second win of the season.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 16th of 20 races on the 2026 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series schedule is the Sept. 25-27 NHRA Nationals at the Rock at Rockingham (N.C.) Dragway.<\/p>\n

This story was originally published on September 22, 2026. \"Drag<\/p>\n

The post Jordan Vandergriff, Cornwell Tools Team Create Michigan Miracle With Inaugural NHRA Great Lakes Nationals Funny Car Win<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jordan Vandergriff and John Force Racing\u2019s Cornwell Tools Chevrolet SS Funny Car team caught a big break in the first round of the rain-delayed inaugural NHRA Great Lakes Nationals but then proceeded to drop the hammer on the rest of their opponents en route to the team\u2019s third win of the 2026 NHRA Mission Foods […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104844"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104844\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}